São Paulo GP – a new pole position winner, a new winner, a clash of champions, great comebacks, internal team intrigues, ruthless quotes… Today’s visit to Brazil resembled a carnival – glorious, loud, colorful! Let’s take a look at what records this stage has left in the pages of history.
#1 George Russell became the 113th driver to win a Formula 1 race in Brazil. Like his predecessor in the Mercedes team, Valtteri Bottas, Russell scored his first victory in the 81st start of his career. This was also the first time that the hymn “God Save the King” was sung in honor of the winner. Neither before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, nor after her death, British teams or drivers had won.
#2 Russell’s victory allowed Mercedes to continue their winning streak – the ‘Silver Arrows’ have won at least one race for 11 consecutive seasons, repeating the achievement of Lotus from 1960 to 1970. Only Ferrari (20 seasons; 1994-2013) and McLaren (13 seasons; 1981-1993) managed to achieve longer streaks.
#3 Kevin Magnussen made a surprise in qualifying. It was the first pole position not only in his career, but also for the Haas team and the Kingdom of Denmark, who became the 24th nation to boast such an achievement. A pole position winner is considered to be a driver who wins qualifying regardless of the sprint results, so Magnussen has marked himself in these statistics boxes, although he has never started higher than 4th position in his career.
#4 “Haas” command pole position awaited after 143 races – longer than any other team in the history of the championship. Only “Sauber” (apart from the period under the “BMW” brand) and “Minardi” teams have existed longer in the championship, without winning a pole position. Magnussen himself managed to win the pole position in the 141st attempt. Only two drivers had to wait longer – Carlos Sainz (151) and Sergio Perez (216). It is significant that this was Magnussen’s 100th start for Haas.
#5 Only for the second time in the history of the championship, pole position was won by a driver with a Ferrari engine, who does not represent the Maranello factory team. In 2007, in Monza with Toro Rosso, even on a rainy day, Sebastian Vettel did it. Meanwhile, the Ferrari team won 242 pole positions with a Ferrari engine.
#6 Magnussen’s race at the São Paulo GP ended exactly as it did in 2017 – after a first-lap collision involving Daniel Ricciardo. For the second time in the last three stages, the pole position winner has to retire after a collision on the first lap. A similar fate befell Carlos Sainz in Austin.
#7 Thanks to George Russell’s victory and Kevin Magnussen’s pole position at the São Paulo GP, this was the first time since the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix that a never-before-seen winner has won both qualifying and the race (barring one driver’s death in weeks wins his first pole position and victory). 19 years ago in Sepang, Fernando Alonso won his first pole position and Kimi Raikkonen won the race for the first time in his career.
#8 Red Bull’s 19-round podium streak that began at the second round of the season in Saudi Arabia was snapped after a final-lap fiasco in Bahrain saw both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen sidelined. “Red Bull” repeated its 2010-2011. streak achieved in the year. Only “Mercedes” and “Ferrari” teams have managed to score podiums in more than 20 stages in a row.
2022 #BrazilGP ???????? Timelapse#F1 # Formula 1 pic.twitter.com/lrA7p8yfvp
— F1Visualized (@f1visualized) November 14, 2022
#9 This year marks 50 years since the very first Brazilian GP. Between 1994 and 2002, 8 out of 9 races at Interlagos were won by the champion of that year. Meanwhile, since 2003, it has been much more difficult for the champions here – only four of the last 19 races have been won by the season’s champion in São Paulo. This year also strengthened this indicator, with Max Verstappen remaining in sixth place.
#10 Next season, 6 sprints are expected in the F1 calendar, but in Brazil we experienced the last one this season. Summing up the results of Imola, Austria and Brazil, Max Verstappen can be crowned as the sprint king this year, who won 21 of the 24 available points in them. Sainz (18), Leclair (17), Perez (14), Russell (13), Hamilton (7), Norris (6), Magnussen (4), Ricciardo (3), Ocon (3), also scored points in the sprints. Bottas (2). It should be noted that Magnussen entered the Top 8 (points zone) in all three sprints this season.
